Kindermusik and Scaffolding

Miriam-Webster defines the term “scaffolding” in part, as follows: “a temporary or movable platform…; a supporting framework.” The process of scaffolding in an educational sense is much like the traditional definition of scaffolding. It is a temporary support system used until the task is complete and the building stands without support.

That sounds a lot like our job as parents, doesn’t it?…providing a temporary support system until the building (your child) can stand without support. This is the concept of scaffolding. Why is scaffolding so important? We all start with a platform of various sizes, widths, heights, strengths, if you will, and all learning begins on that platform.

For successful learning, you must meet your child on his or her “platform”, and led to greater heights.  One of the places you will see this concept in your Kindermusik classroom is during instrument exploration time. Here’s how to scaffold: First, observe what your child is doing with the instrument. Then, meet your child on their “platform” by copying that action (thereby positively affirming it with your child). Finally, then extend that action in some way – this provides your child with new ideas and the appropriate level of challenge for him to be creative in a positive, affirming, safe environment.

When you scaffold with your child, one suggestion builds upon another: “Oh – you are doing so well tapping the sticks up high!…can you tap them down low?” Asking open-ended questions is part of the scaffolding process: “What else can we do with the rhythm sticks?”This allows your child to think creatively, based upon what he has done already.

The result from this one little Kindermusik activity? Your child has experienced multiple musical concepts, has been stimulated creatively, and has been affirmed emotionally because of this one-on-one time with Mom or Dad.

The scaffolding concept crosses into every area of life. Interestingly, in a study first published in 2008 entitled “Preschool teachers’ use of music to scaffold children’s learning and behaviour” by authors Catherine Wilson Gillespie and Kendra R. Glider, it was shown that all teachers in the study used music most frequently to scaffold children’s learning, both in academic and social skill areas, and second most frequently to scaffold routine activities such as cleaning up and transitions to new activities.

So be on the lookout for scaffolding opportunities at home, at the park, the grocery store…anywhere at all. Three easy directives to remember (while you’re providing that “temporary platform” for life): Ask questions, make observations, and give challenges – and before you know it…that little “building” will be standing without support!

-Thanks to Studio 3 in Seattle for sharing this post by Miss Analiisa, with thanks to her good friend and Inspirational Kindermusik Educator of the Year Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program is in Greenville, SC.

Kindermusik at Home! Fiddle Dee Dee!

Kindermusik is NOT intended to be just 45 minutes of fun once a week (though it is fun!) Kindermusik is all about what happens at home, as well as in class. In order to assist you, the parents and caregivers of the children enrolled, Kindermusik International provides you with the tools you need to continue the classroom experience at home.

Your primary resource is your Home Activity Book. I can already see you experienced Kindermusik grown-ups shaking your heads and saying, “Oh, no our CD is the primary resource for play at home.” But I really mean it – the Activity Book is the base for turning your 45 minutes of class fun into a week-long foray into the world of learning through music.

Without the book, you can only re-create what we have done in class. The book provides you with tools and ideas for extending what we have done in class, and adapting the activities to suit your child at home.

So… pull out your Home Activity Book, and turn to page 4. At the bottom, you’ll find a little graph that has 6 icons. Kindermusik has taken the six areas of brain development – physical, cognitive, emotional, language, social and emotional – and given each one an icon so you can quickly identify them throughout the book.

Throughout the book, you will find little tidbits of information (we call them Foundation of Learning Statements, or FOLS for short), about different areas of development. The FOLS also tell you how the activities you are learning in class, or choosing from the book to do at home meet your child’s developmental needs.

Now, you can’t decide to just stay at home and do Kindermusik, and not come to class! The FOLS you will hear in class are not likely to be in the book, and vice versa. The combination of At Home Materials and class provide the optimum well-rounded experience.

In the book, you will also find all the words the songs, all the notated melody lines, and the words and directions for the finger plays and chants. Please don’t hesitate to make up your own words to the songs. This is an age-old tradition called piggy-backing. Did you know there are over 500 verses for Yankee Doodle, and over 100 of them are about George Washington? So be creative and make up some new verses to the songs. It might just get you in the history books!

The core of the Home Activity Book is the activities. (No surprise there!) There are games, activities and crafts, and extensions of activities we do in class that are intended to be done at home. You’ll also find the American Sign Language for several of the animals in Fiddle Dee Dee.

Some of my favorite activities:

The home-made animal stamps on page 11; you can certainly supplement your animals with other shapes from the cookie cutter drawer as well. What animal doesn’t like to look at a sky full of stars, or a rainbow of hearts?

I also love the creature seekers walk on page 12.  To extend this activity at home you can create a scrapbook of the creatures you see on your walk by talking digital photos, printing them, and having your child post them in a book. Ask them about their thoughts on the creature and write them down.  Dictating a child’s thoughts is a powerful tool for language development, and when your child is older and more verbally precocious (and taller than you) you will be so glad you preserved their two year old thought about worms on a path in the park.  (Trust me… those cute little transcriptions from when they were two have saved my verbally audacious teenagers more than once!!)

You can create a bumblebee garden using the pieces on page 27, and the empty garden on pages 30-31.  After you’ve played design master a couple of times by moving the pieces around, let your child choose where things get glued down.  And if they want the flowers floating in mid air and the tree root end up and crown side down, so be it. You might just be nurturing the next Picasso.

You can nurture your own inner Picasso by making butterfly sandwiches and serving them at lunch.  (page 29) And a hot dog and bun decorated with blobs of ketchup and mustard (or other condiments) in symmetrical patterns is great for the meat eaters in your family.

Actually, anything cylindrical and anything you can arrange symmetrically around it works really well – carrot sticks with dots of hummus or ranch dressing, apple slices with drops of peanut butter, caramel and chocolate sauce, a banana half and piles of blueberries, half a strawberry (one half on each side) and kiwi rounds… the options are endless and beautiful.  Art food is a fun way to introduce new foods and concepts to your child- shapes and patterns colors are all easily taught while you are having a beautiful snack together.

You’ll find reading suggestions and listening suggestions throughout the book and things to listen for on your Fiddle Dee Dee CD, too.

I am deliberately skipping the instructions for the Hush Little Baby cards at this point.  I love the activities in the book- but before you embark on ANY of them, be sure you scan the Hush Little Baby pictures first, so that you will have the pictures later for the in class activity… the VERY important, life altering activity…. So scan away, and then you can do any of the activities on page 18. Three sets of the cards is best, anyway; one for home, one for the car and one for your purse so that it always gets to class.

So off you go now to the Fiddle Dee Dee box; pull out that book and get some ideas for ways to spend some time playing with your child today.  Feed your brain with some of those incredible bits of knowledge found in the book, and we will look forward to playing with you later this week!  (Thanks to Studio 3 in Seattle for sharing this blog post with us!)